ON RECORDBJP-BSP Govt providing
good governance
in UP: NaqviMayawati’s reversal of stand
on Jagmohan proves
BJP is rightby S. SatyanarayananUTTAR
Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s gambit of attacking Union Tourism
Minister Jagmohan demanding his dismissal on the controversial Taj
Corridor issue has once again brought into focus the tenuous
relationship between the BJP and the BSP. The Mayawati-Jagmohan episode
has virtually put a question mark on whether or not the BSP-BJP combine
can emerge as a formidable combine in Uttar Pradesh in the next Lok
Sabha elections.

National judicial
panel, a cure worse than remedyby Surya PrakashTHE
Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government has decided to set up a National
Judicial Commission (NJC) for the appointment and transfer of the judges
of the Supreme Court and the High Courts. But it will be a remedy worse
than the disease. The judiciary will lose its independence as the
politicians will keep judges under their thumb through the weapon of
transfer.

Vigorous
efforts needed to check female foeticideby Priyanka SinghTHERE
has always been large-scale intolerance and tilt against the girl
child in the rural areas. Only now, it is spreading fast and across
the board. No section is free of this evil that has a long history and
is not a phenomenon that has only recently manifested itself in our
culture. This gruesome practice continues undeterred, more so in the
northern parts of the country where the preponderance of a male child
has become a compulsive obsession.

PROFILE

A relentless crusader
against child labourby Harihar SwarupA
decade back most of the girls in the villages of Ranga Reddy district
in Andhra Pradesh did not go to school. A few who enrolled, soon
dropped out because there was something better to do — on the farm,
in the forest, the market place or at home. Informatively, Andhra
Pradesh had, and may still have, the highest number of child labour in
India. Then came on the scene a 41-year-old woman, a relentless
fighter for the rights of the child labour, and success stories began
trickling in.

REFLECTIONS

Wanted: Gurpreets and
Sardar Patelsby Kiran BediI
am delighted, and equally grateful for the initiatives Ms Gurpreet
Deo, SSP, Hoshiarpur has taken in the area of community policing. Mr.
Anil Kaushik, Additional Director-General, Lokpal, has duly
appreciated her measures. I am additionally happy to see and equally
relieved to note that Gurpreet has the recognition and support from
her senior colleagues for her forward thinking. All the steps, which
she unfolded, are worth emulation by all police districts not only in
Punjab but all other States in India as well.

DIVERSITIES
— DELHI LETTERS

A relaxed party
typical of Arab hospitalityby Humra QuraishiON
July 30, at the reception hosted by Morocco’s Ambassador to India
Mohamed Louafa, to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the
enthronement of Morocco King Mohammed VI, I met three invitees who
stood out. One was ousted Iraqi President Saddam Husain's furniture
man Mukhtiar Singh Assal.

KASHMIR
DIARY

Another
battle for superiority in communication equipmentby David DevadasABOUT
six weeks ago, a US-patented wireless set was caught at a militant
hideout near the north bank of Srinagar’s most beautiful lake, the
Nagin. No ordinary wireless set this: it is so advanced that it not
only allows voices to carry with the clarity of a telephone line as
far potentially as Spain, it is also almost impossible to tap.

ON RECORDBJP-BSP Govt providing good governance in UP: NaqviMayawati’s reversal of stand on Jagmohan proves BJP is rightby S. Satyanarayanan

BJP General Secretary and Spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

UTTAR
Pradesh Chief
Minister Mayawati’s gambit of attacking Union Tourism Minister
Jagmohan demanding his dismissal on the controversial Taj Corridor issue
has once again brought into focus the tenuous relationship between the
BJP and the BSP. The Mayawati-Jagmohan episode has virtually put a
question mark on whether or not the BSP-BJP combine can emerge as a
formidable combine in Uttar Pradesh in the next Lok Sabha elections. BJP
General Secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi admits that the BJP-BSP alliance
was not forged on any specific ideology or policies and differences
cannot be ironed out overnight in a fledgling relationship forged barely
a year ago.

Excerpts of the interview:

Q: What impact will the
recent Mayawati-Jagmohan rift on the Taj Corridor controversy have on
the
BJP’s vote base in UP?

A: It is a fact that the alliance between
the BJP and BSP in Uttar Pradesh was not forged on the basis of any
specific ideology, programme or policies. It was based on the political
circumstances that prevailed at that time. Since the Samajwadi Party
failed to form a government and the State could not have afforded
another election, in the interest of the people we were forced to forge
an alliance with the BSP. However, we proved our critics wrong. Barring
a few minor differences, the BSP-BJP government is functioning well.
Even the Taj Corridor controversy which was blown up in the media got
resolved with Ms Mayawati taking back her demand for dismissal of Mr
Jagmohan. This shows BJP is right; its image has gone up in the eyes of
the people.

Q: By demanding the dismissal of Mr Jagmohan, the BSP
Chief had virtually challenged the authority of the Prime Minister.

A: The
firm stand taken by the BJP on the issue has sent a message across what
the party, which is leading a successful coalition Government at the
Centre, could do if anybody tries to cross the "Lakshman
Rekha".

Q: Despite the BJP Central leadership deciding to
continue the BSP-BJP alliance, some of the senior party leaders in UP
are still demanding severing of ties with BSP.

A: While breaking an
alliance is easy, it is very difficult to form an alliance and run it
successfully. In this regard, the BJP has sent a strong message across
by running a successful coalition government at the Centre and playing a
positive role as an alliance partner in Uttar Pradesh. It is a fact that
the success of the NDA experience has even forced the Congress to give a
call for alliance politics. So, it is obvious that whenever an alliance
takes place there will obviously be some critics within and outside your
party. Keeping the broader interest of the state and the nation, the BJP
had forged alliances and is instrumental in not only running it
successfully but also giving it stability.

Q: Many UP BJP leaders
have been complaining about Ms Mayawati’s abrasive style of
functioning. Your comments.

A: As far as governance is concerned, I
can’t point out any instance where Ms Mayawati or the BJP had not
adhered to coalition ethics. Ministers belonging to the BJP in Uttar
Pradesh are functioning in an independent manner and there is no
interference from Ms Mayawati. Moreover, compared to Mulayam Singh’s
government, there is a positive feeling among the people about the good
hold Ms Mayawati-led government has over the administration and the
bureaucracy. When I talk about coalition ethics, barring some small
political differences, the BSP-BJP combine has been successful in
providing good administration and governance.

Q: Despite the
so-called resolution of the differences on the Taj Corridor issue, there
still seems to be mistrust between the BSP and BJP.

A: I fully
agree with what you say. I don’t what to be an hypocrite by giving you
a political reply. There is trust among the top leadership of both the
parties. It would be unfair for anyone to expect that within one year of
the alliance, the two parties , with different ideologies, policies and
programmes, would have 100 per cent coordination at the ground level. It
is virtually impossible...for that you need more time. With the passage
of time, trust and confidence between the two parties will grow further.

Q: As it is being said that the BJP and BSP will contest Lok Sabha
polls together, do you think due to the alliance with BJP, Mayawati will
lose Muslim votes?

A: I don’t think so. If you recall, Ms
Mayawati had shared election campaign and soon thereafter when a
by-election was held for the Badaiun Constituency in Uttar Pradesh, the
BSP candidate trounced his SP rival who was a Muslim. So, the thinking
in some quarters that alliance with the BJP will keep the Muslims away
from other parties is mischievous and misconceived. This perception has
no meaning after the good governance given by the BJP-led NDA government
at the Centre for the past five years. When the BJP has started getting
Muslim votes then why can’t its alliance partners as well?

Q: It
has been observed that for every problem in Uttar Pradesh, the State
leadership comes calling on central leadership without looking for
solutions themselves.

A: As far as I know, most of the issues
pertaining to the state is discussed and resolved at the state level
itself. But at the same time one should not forget that Ms Mayawati is
not only the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh but also the topmost leader
of the BSP, having influence in other states also. So, we can’t look
at Ms Mayawati as a small leader from Uttar Pradesh but her role in the
national perspective.

Q: Then will the BJP contest the coming
Assembly elections in four north Indian states in alliance with the
BSP?

A: As far as elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Rajasthan and Delhi are concerned we will contest on our own. There is
no intention on our part to forge an alliance in these states.

THE Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government has decided to set up a National Judicial Commission (NJC) for the appointment and transfer of the judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts. But it will be a remedy worse than the disease. The judiciary will lose its independence as the politicians will keep judges under their thumb through the weapon of transfer.

In the Constituent Assembly debates (1949), Dr B. R. Ambedkar emphasised, “There can be no difference of opinion in the House that our judiciary must both be independent of the executive and must also be competent in itself”.
Legal expertise, ability to handle cases, proper conduct, ethical behaviour, and aptitude to work without fear or favour, pressure or ill-will, are the attributes combined together to constitute a person fit for the judiciary.

The maximum opportunity for adjudging the ability and traits of the Bar members is with the Judges of the courts. Therefore, our Constitution provides that the opinion of the Chief Justice of India, in the matter of appointment of all judges and the views of the Chief Justice of the High Courts in the case of appointment of a judge in a High Court, are most significant.

The independence of the judiciary was threatened during Indira Gandhi's regime. Her election from Rae Bareli constituency was set aside by the Allahabad High Court in 1971. She filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. Worse, to nullify the Allahabad High Court's verdict, her government amended the Constitution to the effect that the courts will have no jurisdiction to try election petitions against the Prime Minister. The judgement of the Allahabad High Court, under appeal before the Supreme Court, was declared void. The election declared void by the High Court judgement was validated by the legislature. The executive totally overpowered the courts. This was the biggest blow to the world’s largest democracy.

The Supreme Court judges, being independent of the executive, could show courage in declaring this amendment as unconstitutional by holding that the power to amend the Constitution could not be exercised as to destroy or mutilate its basic structure, that is democracy. This was the time when the procedure of appointment and transfer of the judges attracted the attention of the politicians. The executive, being one of the consultees, started claiming primacy in this field. Interference of politicians started in the judiciary. The executive made all-out efforts to have its own people in the judiciary. Even the Supreme Court, in the Judge's case (S.P. Gupta versus Union of India, AIR 1982 SC 149), accepted the supremacy of the executive in the appointment of judges. Consequently, many judges were appointed without giving importance to the opinion of the Chief Justice of India.

In the second Judge’s case (Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association versus Union of India, 1993 (4) SCC 441), the Supreme Court overruled its earlier judgement. The primacy of the Chief Justice of India, in the matter of appointment and transfer of Judges, was upheld.

The independence of the judiciary was threatened when the Supreme Court directed the political parties to disclose all criminal cases, qualifications, assets and liabilities before contesting the elections. Efforts were made to nullify these directions, but the Supreme Court took a serious view and quashed the amendment to the Representation of People Act. The NJC is no solution to the twin problems of increasing incidents of misconduct by judicial officers and heavy pendency of cases. Instead, it will enhance corruption, create social imbalance and threaten the liberty of others.

The huge backlog of cases is not due to the lack of performance by the judges. Most of them remain busy round the clock handling the case files. The indolent executive has not only failed to create more posts of judges in proportion to the growing population and litigation but also not filling even the vacancies despite the Law Commission’s reports and directions of the Supreme Court and the High Courts.

For instance, though Haryana and Punjab decided to regularise the services of those who completed three to six years of service as part-time or daily wage employees, the latter had to appeal in the court for this relief. An individual has to file four petitions for one relief! The
court orders are implemented only after the contempt petition is filed.

In fact, Punjab has emerged as the biggest litigant. In Punjab and Haryana High Court, for instance, more than 60 per cent cases are against the two states. Even if the courts decide a law point in one petition in favour of one employee, the executive does not apply the same to all who are similarly placed. Everyone is required to rush to the court for the same relief. The judiciary is competent enough to put its house in order provided it is made more powerful on matters of appointment, transfer and action against erring
officers.

THERE has always been large-scale intolerance and tilt against the girl child in the rural areas. Only now, it is spreading fast and across the board. No section is free of this evil that has a long history and is not a phenomenon that has only recently manifested itself in our culture. This gruesome practice continues undeterred, more so in the northern parts of the country where the preponderance of a male child has become a compulsive obsession.

This trend is specific to north India as states such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry have recorded a sex ratio of less than 900. A similar pattern emerges in Orissa and northeastern states. The net deficit of females in India which was 3.2 million in 1901 has widened to over 35 million in 2001.

Dr Rainuka Daggar, Senior Research Fellow in Chandigarh’s Institute for Development and Communication, says North India always had an adverse sex ratio that was aggravated by the Green Revolution. Haryana has recorded a relatively higher literacy rate than the national average. However, the sex ratio is far below the national average, she says, adding that, it has declined continuously since 1981 and is at its lowest since Independence.

The situation in Punjab is just as bad with the Planning Commission asking it to probe the falling sex ratio that is indicative of the acceleration in the incidence of female foeticide. What is startling is that the reaction to it is diminutive, not even a miniscule part of the response evoked by a Cola advertisement.

The statistics mock our belief that we are a culturally and morally superior nation. These are reflective of moral decadence and not mere indicators of the demographic imbalance. We cannot afford to detach ourselves from the goings-on and be complacent spectators or meek participants. The word “negative” is used for a female foetus in clinics that offer sex determination tests. Ultrasound and amniocentesis technologies were evolved to detect congenital abnormalities but these are being misused to identify female foetuses only to relegate them to the dustbin. It is horrifying that one word alone should seal her fate. Ironically, we still proudly recall some of the outstandingly eminent women achievers who have been at the helm of affairs and at the same time we continue to kill our daughters who have been fondly likened to Goddess Lakshmi and with as much reverence.

We need to have respect for human life as it concerns all of us. We might not be able to change things overnight but steps have to be taken fast and with all earnestness. Across the globe, the progress of society is judged on parameters that include ethics, concern for the community and the level of civilisation. A country where female foeticide is as common as goddess worship can hardly claim to be evolved as a society.

When an illiterate woman, wilfully or under coercion, agrees to the termination of her foetus, some kind of an explanation can be forwarded, for in her case extraneous factors have always ruled her life. It is worrisome when a modern, educated woman tacitly agrees to the killings. It is beyond any logic and, therefore, even more sinister. Surveys have revealed the runaway success of clinics that have grown to the extent that they have become commonplace despite a ban. Couples throng these clinics that not only reveal the sex of the unborn child, but also help beget a male foetus through various techniques.

Girls are primarily considered a liability. Theoretically, people are in favour of the discontinuance of dowry but in practice very few dare accept it as an operative fact. Indian woman today possesses political, social and vocational acumen and contributes to the family kitty. She rubs shoulders with men in all fields and is a competent Boeing pilot, a defence analyst, a cosmonaut and a scientist, among others. Yet her identity is undermined.

To focus on female foeticide as a cause of the declining sex ratio alone amounts to trivialising the issue. The need is to counter male-child preference and introduce role fluidity and sensitisation to the gender system. A complete metamorphosis of our antediluvian mindset is required. This can be brought about by educating and empowering women, encouraging people to let go of their grip on the traditional importance attached to a male child and creating awareness through access to information that percolates to the lowest common denominator. Much of the effort should come from the women themselves who must learn to stand up for their convictions and fight their own battles.

Policy-makers will have to enact laws that are even more stringent and regularly review them. Census to determine the sex ratio should be undertaken every five years to monitor this practice. Defaulting states should be made accountable. The introduction of innovative, result-oriented schemes by the Centre and the states for the welfare of the girl child, both in the short and long term, will act as a deterrent. The Shagun scheme by the Punjab government is a case in point. The Centre had considered sending congratulatory cards to couples blessed with daughters but the scheme never took off.

Female foeticide is symbolic of a world gone wrong. The figures are not only emotionally disturbing, but also socially alarming. In a scenario where protectors become killers, the very basic family unit is threatened. This is not the legacy we wish the coming generations to
inherit.

A decade back most of the girls in the villages of Ranga Reddy district in Andhra Pradesh did not go to school. A few who enrolled, soon dropped out because there was something better to do — on the farm, in the forest, the market place or at home. Informatively, Andhra Pradesh had, and may still have, the highest number of child labour in India. Then came on the scene a 41-year-old woman, a relentless fighter for the rights of the child labour, and success stories began trickling in.

The woman behind this “silent revolution” has been chosen for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award. Shantha Sinha, a teacher by profession, has been decorated with the Asian version of the “Nobel” Prize last week. Warm and affable, Sinha is now 53 and has done intensive work relating to elimination of child labour through universalisation of elementary education in Ranga Reddy district. Currently, she is Professor of Political Science at Hyderabad University. Her grooming was done at JNU, Delhi, where she met another scholar, a political scientist, Ajoy Kumar Sinha, and both got married. Their two daughters — Sudha, a doctor and Deepa — have been assisting their mother as NGOs.

Shantha Sinha has been working in the sphere of unorganised labour sector since 1991 through an organisation known as Manidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation (known as M.V. Foundation). The MVF was raised by her father M. Anandam, a former MP, known for his warmth and dedication, with the avowed objective of helping the exploited, particularly the children in the unorganised sector. In the course of time the focus of the organisation shifted mainly to two items; child labour and illiteracy. Shantha carried forward the work done by her father and has been fanatically committed to the twin objective. The foundation has enlarged its activities to seven more districts in the last three years. Managing the organisation as its Secretary, Shantha believes that poverty doesn’t necessarily lead to child labour and the best place for a child is the formal school.

Life has changed for many children because of the sustained work MVF and Shantha’s had done. Life of 10-year-old Ramalu, once a child labour, now revolves around his school. No longer does he have to work for hours each day in someone else’s field to pay off a debt. Before MVF came to his rescue, Ramalu had to work as a bonded labourer for a paltry sum of Rs. 1,500. Like Ramulu, more than 15,000 children in 300 villages of Ranga Reddy district, have been benefited by the MVF projects — withdrawn from hazardous work and enrolled in schools. An aspect of MVF programme is to motivate parents to send their children to school. A salutary effect of the MVF’s intervention has been a check on child marriages. Significantly, the age gap between young couples is often 8-10 years and there are many young widows and deserted wives, often with children.

The MVF adopts a two-pronged strategy to remove child labourers from hazardous work. For the 5 to 8-year olds, the MVF strategy is to get them enrolled in the local government schools. The 9 to 14-year olds are first identified through non-formal education centres. Contacts are established with their parents and after intensive

motivation drive, these children are withdrawn from their respective works and trained for three to four months in a residential educational orientation camp. By the end of the residential camp, the hitherto totally illiterate children acquire the ability to read and write and can now join into classes III or IV of formal schools and get admitted into social welfare hostels.

Shantha Sinha says there are 100 million children in the country who have been denied access to regular schools and forced to join the ranks of the labour force as unskilled workers, mostly in the unorganised sector. Their lot has to be improved. Now that her decade-long service to society has been recognised by Ramon Magsaysay and Shantha hailed as “Community Leader”, she may expand her work in other parts of the country too.

I am delighted, and equally grateful for the initiatives Ms Gurpreet Deo, SSP, Hoshiarpur has taken in the area of community policing. Mr. Anil Kaushik, Additional Director-General, Lokpal, has duly appreciated her measures. I am additionally happy to see and equally relieved to note that Gurpreet has the recognition and support from her senior colleagues for her forward thinking. All the steps, which she unfolded, are worth emulation by all police districts not only in Punjab but all other States in India as well.

I get a feeling that there is a whole movement towards progressive thinking in the region otherwise such ‘holistic’ measures rarely surface, even in isolation. Note the word holistic. It is not that some of these initiatives have not been taken in the past. The difference here is in the totality and comprehensiveness of reach.

Gurpreet’s programmes encompass everything: She has opened up the system for all sections of society for whom police is a last or first anchor. Namely, senior citizens, women, drug addiction, accident victims, travellers, complainants, status of FIR’s and children. She is giving people the right to demand of their police what is their due. She is therefore by these measures truly making people ‘partners’ in policing. It is as I see, collective community policing.

She has given the citizens of Hoshiarpur a practicing ‘Right to Information’. ‘Ask for anything’ is the mission statement. It is genuine and not a gimmick.

As I read the news of her initiatives a large number of questions started to well into my head. Why do we not have more of these holistic initiatives? Why did they not exist earlier? What were her predecessors doing? And why were these not the policies of the past seniors? And now that she has crafted them, how do we ensure that these last. How do we guard against envy, which may hit her and her programmes? How do we create a situation by which others also emulate these programmes for larger benefit?

These are the questions that started to seek answers as I read about her policies with a great sense of exhilaration. The key is that we need more Gurpreets. And they are there. She happens to be a woman in the Indian Police Service and in the list of pioneers in many ways. But what has made her do what she did is not her exclusive monopoly. What she has within her resides and possessed by all of us, which is a beating heart. We have only to allow it to beat for others too. Anyone of us who does that, instantly becomes capable of and starts doing what Gurpreet did. For s/he will use it for the purpose one is appointed and duty bound for.

And now about preservation and spreading it around: Let us do it all in Punjab, in totality, to begin with. Let us document objectively the results of these measures. Any one of the universities could make it a research subject for evaluation. This then be presented by the Director-General of the State Police in the annual DGP’s conference due a few months from now, for a discussion and adoption by the willing.

Finally not only the Gurpreets of India but also Sardar Patels will be needed to be partners of the concept of collective-community policing. But Gurpreets ought not wait for there is a duty to be
done.

ON July 30, at the reception hosted by Morocco’s Ambassador to India Mohamed Louafa, to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the enthronement of Morocco King Mohammed VI, I met three invitees who stood out. One was ousted Iraqi President Saddam Husain's furniture man Mukhtiar Singh Assal.

The man is one of his loyalists around so much so I overheard him outpouring his anger rather passionately: “I find no words to describe the blatant aggression by the US and the UK combined. I feel absolutely disgusted by what America has done in Iraq. And now the brutal killings of the sons of Saddam. For me Saddam continues to be the real ruler of Iraq. For me he is a khalsa. I had met him whenever I had visited Iraq. He is a real good man and not what the US has made me out to be.”

Then, that evening, it is after months that I met Iraqi Embassy's seniormost diplomat Adday Al-Sakab. I had interviewed him when the aggression on Iraq had just begun. And then didn’t try to get back, certain that he would have left by the end of the war.

I was surprised to meet him and his spouse and their teenaged son. I could sense the tension writ large on their faces and it was disturbing to hear the boy telling me that he has not been attending school.

“I used to study at the Iraqi school but ever since the war broke out it has been shut…no, there are no other schools with Arabic as the medium of instruction, so my two sisters and I are sitting at home”. Doing what ? “Doing nothing”, he quipped so very matter of fact that it left me disturbed. That war has not just killed and ruined thousands, but has affected generations for times to come. The future of this boy and his sisters seems so bleak.

Another diplomat who stood out that evening was Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zeljko Janjetovic. In fact, he and his spouse stood out because of their great looks and also because of the fact that they didn’t react to the aggressive posture adopted by one of our well-known medical experts who also happens to be heading a premier medical institute here in New Delhi.

This man, whose face resembles that of Dara Singh, was rudely ordering some of the guests and diplomats to stand in a queue for the dinner plates. Though his tone was more than aggressive, the Bosnian Ambassador did not react and behaved like a perfect gentleman. Later as we got talking the Ambassador spoke of normalcy returning to his land. He felt sorry that those horror stories are still doing the rounds and few know that things have improved and those scars have been taken care of.

There are striking similarities among the developing nations. At this reception, the hottest drink (in every sense of the term) was mint tea. A pleasant looking, young Moroccan man was making this special brew — tea leaves got from China brewed with mint leaves obtained from Morocco and served with much love and affection to the Indian guests. It was a warm, relaxed evening complete with the traditional Arab
hospitality.

Another battle for superiority in communication equipment
by David Devadas

ABOUT six weeks ago, a US-patented wireless set was caught at a militant hideout near the north bank of Srinagar’s most beautiful lake, the Nagin. No ordinary wireless set this: it is so advanced that it not only allows voices to carry with the clarity of a telephone line as far potentially as Spain, it is also almost impossible to tap. This type of wireless set is called a scrammer, which means it does not transmit signals on a single frequency but jumps frequencies almost constantly, so that only a similarly programmed device can read the signal. And being a digital scrammer, it is governed by a high-powered computer chip. Nor is it possible to pinpoint the location of the set through the GPS (global positioning system), since it operates on high radio frequencies rather than via satellite.

This particular design is only supposed to be in use with the US and Pakistani armies. It was exclusively manufactured and patented for the US Army but was then sold to Pakistan through a $US 3-million contract in the mid-1980s when the Afghan campaign against the Soviets was in full swing.

The recovery of the set for the first time in Kashmir does not necessarily indicate that the sophistication of equipment made available to militant groups operating here has recently been upgraded. Indeed, there are indications that Pakistan has since January last year been reining in militant operations, albeit not the number of militants present on the Indian side of the Line of Control, their spread across the state, or their communication facilities.

Indeed, the militant operations need to be carefully calibrated in tandem with a process that might lead to a comprehensive resolution of the Kashmir issue. The desire to move that way was apparent in the words of senior Pakistani parliamentarian Maulana Fazlur Rehman — the patron of the string of madarsas from where most of the Harkat and Taliban cadres emerged — during his recent visit to India.

Those that wish for a peaceful resolution now must hope and pray that they can control the militant cadres, who are often blinkered by their indoctrination at those very madarsas. For this recovery clearly shows how difficult it is to roll back history. The US might wish dearly that it could rewrite the script it wrote in the 1980s, but hindsight is only for regretting. Similarly, even if Pakistan now wants to stop the supply of equipment to the militant groups, some very sophisticated armaments are already with the groups.

The technology with which the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) boys began militant operations in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s now seem like child’s play by comparison with the equipment mujahideen groups with Afghan links have brought in over the past decade. The first quantum leap in communication technology occurred in 1993, the year when the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami and its offshoots first began to operate in Kashmir.

The Indian Army has claimed publicly that a joint communication centre for all the militant groups began operations in Muzaffarabad that year. Over the next five years, militants mainly used crypto-phonic devices in the frequency range of 30 to 60 hertz. They already had scrammers but of sorts that could be intercepted by the Russian-made Pharanov anti-scramming devices that India had.

Experts say, the second communication revolution in the Kashmir militancy occurred in 1998. The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, which had become the most potent of the militant groups by then, brought digital Kenwood and Motorola sets, most of the Army's 3 Mountain Division recovered the first of those near Kupwara on October 3, 1998. That one had no scramming facility but a US-made set recovered the next year turned out to have a scrammer. It had a low frequency range, however, and would not have been clearly audible at any great distance.

No wonder the set recovered at Nagin has caused a great deal of excitement in the ranks of the cloak and dagger brigade. The Indian Army officers complain of the comparatively primitive devices they are given: larger, heavier, analogue scrammers that are far from clearly audible, and have to be painstakingly re-tuned if they happen to get a jolt.

Although the most sophisticated devices now available were contracted for purchase when Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani visited Israel in 2001, they are yet to be inducted into the Army's inventory. There is still potential then for yet another round in the spiraling battle for superiority in communication equipment within the larger war being waged in
Kashmir.